1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle anti-theft device and an anti-theft information center which are used to detect illegal activity on a vehicle in order to inform a vehicle manager of the occurrence of the illegal activity.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally known is an anti-theft device which is designed to detect the occurrence of illegal activity to a vehicle in the case where the vehicle is illegally acted upon by a third party. Examples of illegal activity by a third party include: attempting to open a vehicle door or a trunk lid other than by use of an authorized key, attempting to break a window glass of a vehicle, attempting to move a vehicle itself using a wrecker, tow truck or the like, or the case in which a third party attempts to start an engine other than by use of an authorized key. In the case of one or more of the above occurrences, an alarm will sound from the vehicle.
Additionally, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2000-272475, there is also known an anti-theft device not only for sounding an alarm, a flashing lamp or the like, but also for wirelessly transmitting vehicle information. The transmission indicates the vehicle status at the occurrence of the illegal activity. That is, the current position of the vehicle, the particular type of the illegal activity, and the like are transmitted to an information terminal of the vehicle manager or an anti-theft information center operated by a security company.
According to such an anti-theft device, the illegal activity of the vehicle can quickly be reported to a vehicle manager to indicate the activity to the vehicle. Even if a vehicle is stolen, it is possible to quickly find the vehicle based on the status of the vehicle at that moment which includes the vehicle's current position and the like. Therefore, thwarting vehicle theft and damage are possible.
However, the above-described conventional anti-theft device has the following problem. Since such an anti-theft device is designed to detect and transmit vehicle status after detection of an illegal activity to the vehicle, the amount of information which can be transmitted to the information terminal of the vehicle manager or the anti-theft information center is extremely small in the case where a person performing the illegal activity breaks into the vehicle and breaks any necessary information transmitting device. As a result, the anti-theft device is disadvantaged and potentially incapable of finding a stolen vehicle or identifying a person based on the transmitted information.
More specifically, although a conventional anti-theft device functions extremely effectively when a vehicle intruder does not break the information transmission device, it does not effectively function when an intruder is familiar with the functions and the structure of such an anti-theft device and is capable of breaking the transmitting device. In this case, the device fails to sufficiently prevent vehicle theft and vandalism.